Fight for Students’ Rights

For some corporate predators, trapping students in cycles of debt means big business.

As the $150 billion market in private student loans grows, so too does the number of students ensnared in contracts that are crawling with onerous terms – including forced arbitration clauses and class action bans, which deny students’ rights to hold lenders accountable for bait-and-switch schemes and other rip-offs.

When you sign up to get an education, you should not be forced to sign away your rights.

Tell the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that forced arbitration clauses in student loan contracts rob students of their right to seek justice in court against predatory lenders.

If you have a personal story about how a forced arbitration clause or other onerous loan provision harmed you or a student you know, be sure to share that in your note to the CFPB as well.

Note: Your comment and any other information you provide below will be displayed publicly on the CFPB’s website or on www.regulations.gov.

What exactly do these provisions mean for students?

Forced arbitration clauses in private student loan terms mean that if the student ever has a legal dispute with the lender, public court is not an option. Instead, the student must face the lender in a private, secretive tribunal with advantages stacked highly in the lender’s favor.

Class-action bans mean that students can’t band together to hold their lenders accountable for unfair, deceptive and illegal practices. So if a lender were to rip off every student borrower, only those few students with the time and resources to seek justice individually in costly and secret arbitration stand any chance of holding the lender accountable.

Meanwhile, the private student lenders can reap millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains with no accountability.

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